Putting Oklahoma tornado in perspective

6:14 AM,
May 23, 2013

Written by

Lee Sandlin

During the live coverage of the horrific events in Moore, Okla., on Monday night, meteorologist Mike Morgan on Oklahoma City TV station KFOR declared that this was "the worst tornado damage-wise in the history of the world." Versions of that phrase went on echoing through the national coverage of the disaster that night.

No, this wasn't the absolute worst tornado ever, but there was still something unusually horrible about it. The size and destructiveness were, as writer Andrew Leonard in Salon put it, "unprecedented."

Without minimizing the tragedy of what happened in Moore - where at ...